Has the Christchurch City Council forgotten about the roads on the east?

Has the Christchurch City Council forgotten about the roads on the east? The perception is yes, but what’s the reality?

At a council meeting, a Linwood resident urged staff to re-prioritise road works, saying the organisation had let the east down.

Before re-election, Mayor Lianne Dalziel floated the idea of forming an “eastern alliance” infrastructure group, but that failed to materialise.

In a video presentation, the resident highlighted “unacceptable” conditions on Pages Road, New Brighton Road and Maces Roads.

Chris Lynch Media asked the Council to produce a breakdown of what eastern roads had been fixed and what still needed repairs.

Head of Transport Lynette Ellis said flooding mitigation on Pages Road had been completed.

But then said, “Pages Road between the Avon River and Anzac Drive will be upgraded as part of the ‘Pages Road Bridge Renewal Project.”

“The road will be lifted approximately 0.5m from the existing ground surface, which will significantly reduce flooding.”

“Council staff understand this is key infrastructure for New Brighton and they’re working hard to progress the large project.”

Council approved the installation of 3.7 million dollar cycleways on Antigua Street, but those on the east will have to wait at least two more years with work on their roads not expected to start until between 2024–2025.

Councillor Yani Johanson said that was unacceptable.

“The cost is astronomical when Council still has greater priorities for munted roads to be fixed in the east that have had their renewals deferred for over a decade.”

Ellis said “significant sections of New Brighton Road had been completely repaired and other sections had been resurfaced as required. There are plans to resurface other sections of the road.”

A dairy owner in New Brighton told Chris Lynch many roads were fixed and in a much better condition than previous years.

At least one business on Maces Road in Bromley was considering moving out, because of the patch-up jobs on the road.

Ellis said “from October 2017 to today council had spent $61,565.36 maintaining Maces Road and there were plans to reseal the road – but didn’t provide a date.

Councillors Phil Mauger and Yani Johanson said they want the council to redirect money allocated to upgrading Gloucester Street to the East.

In the Draft Annual Plan 2022-23, $3.4 million will be spent upgrading Gloucester Street between Manchester and Colombo Streets.

Ellis was also questioned about the perception that the council didn’t care about the East.

Ellis responded: “the 2021-31 Long Term Plan increased renewal budgets for roads to aim to ensure that 6% of the network is resurfaced annually.”

“The renewal programme is driven by asset age and conditions and has a network-wide focus. Council is actively working toward improving the efficiency of delivery and improve the quality of the roads and footpaths as soon as possible considering the budget limitations.”

But what about the mayor’s ‘Eastern Alliance’ infrastructure group?

In a statement provided by the Christchurch City Council it said “the concept of an “Eastern Alliance” that the Mayor promoted during the 2019 campaign was based on the SCIRT model, which unfortunately did not include anything other than work that was funded under the Cost Sharing Agreement.”

“So despite the enormous amount of work that was done in the east, there is still more to be done.”

With the Regeneration Plan signed off in the Ōtakaro Avon River Corridor, the Mayor was also signalling a different way of getting the work done so that the work could be joined up (e.g. including footpaths that were not included in the cost-sharing agreement) and so people in the east could see what had been done, what was going to be done and when.

“The reality is that COVID hit in 2020 and it was not possible to progress the approach further at that time.”

The comparative spend for maintenance across the city is as shown below (current contract period, October 2017 to present).

Eastern area Coastal, Burwood, Linwood & Innes

$34,522,580.76

Southern area Riccarton, Hornby, Halswell, Spreydon, Heathcote & Cashmere

$41,859,109.89

Northern area Harewood, Papanui, Waimairi, Fendalton

$25,867,859.26

Central area Central

$18,873,673.32

And below is a projection of budget allocated in each area for the coming season’s works for 2022-23.

Central area Central